1. The Field of the Present Disclosure
The present disclosure relates generally to electronic communications, and more particularly, but not necessarily entirely, to electronic devices for personal and business use in a wide variety of secure transactions and information exchanges.
2. Description of Related Art
Identify theft and fraud is a growing problem. Identity theft and fraud occur when someone maliciously uses someone else's personal identifying information, including name, Social Security, or credit card number, without permission to commit fraud or other crimes. Crimes take many forms as identity thieves may rent an apartment, obtain a credit card, or establish an account in someone else's name. The victim may not find out about the theft until it is too late. Victims of identity theft may spend countless hours and dollars attempting to rectify the crimes. Companies such as banks and credit card companies spend billions because of it.
One way to prevent identity theft is through the use of biometrics. Biometrics utilize methods that uniquely recognize humans based upon one or more intrinsic physical or behavioral traits. Biometrics can be used for both verification and identification. Verification involves a one to one comparison of captured biometric data with stored biometric data, sometime referred to herein as a biometric template, to verify the identity of an individual.
Although it is recognized in theory that biometrics may reduce instances of identity theft and aid in verification of an individual, adequate implementation of biometric technology has not been forthcoming in the marketplace. Despite the advantages of known biometric systems, improvements are therefore still being sought.
The prior art is thus characterized by several disadvantages that are addressed by the present disclosure. The present disclosure minimizes, and in some aspects eliminates, the above-mentioned failures, and other problems, by utilizing the methods and structural features described herein.
The features and advantages of the present disclosure will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by the practice of the present disclosure without undue experimentation. The features and advantages of the present disclosure may be realized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.